Yawn could lead to prison
Clifton Williams, 33, is facing six months in jail in Illinois for making what court documents called a yawn-like sound in Will County Judge Daniel Rozak’s court last month in Illinois. The yawn happened as Williams’ cousin, Jason Mayfield, was being sentenced for a drug charge on July 23. Rozak found Williams in contempt of court and sentenced him to six months in jail. Rozak could free Williams after a status hearing today if Williams apologizes and the judge accepts. By then, Williams will have served 21 days. Charles Pelkie, spokesman for the Will County state attorney’s office, said the prosecutor in the courtroom at the time told him that the yawn “was a very loud, boisterous, deliberate attempt ... to disrupt the proceedings and show disrespect to the court ... It was not a guy who involuntarily yawned.”
■UNITED STATES
Jackson kids get guardian
A Los Angeles judge has appointed a special guardian to represent the financial interests of Michael Jackson’s three orphaned children, heirs to his massive music empire, a court statement said on Tuesday. The Los Angeles Superior Court said that attorney Margaret Lodise, a partner with the law firm Sacks, Glazier, Franklin & Lodise, LLP, had been selected to represent the interests of Jackson’s daughter Paris, 11, and sons Prince Michael, 12, and Prince Michael II, 7, known as “Blanket.” Lodise’s advocacy is to be independent of the management of the singer’s estate and separate from decisions made by the paternal grandmother, Katherine Jackson, who is the legal guardian.
■COSTA RICA
President catches swine flu
President Oscar Arias is suffering from the H1N1 flu virus, making him the first head of state known to have contracted it. Nobel Peace Prize winner Arias, 68, has a mild case of the virus, which he tested positive for on Tuesday after feeling unwell at the weekend, the government said. Arias is at home and plans to do some work from there. “Apart from the fever and a soar throat, I feel well,” he said in a statement.
■UNITED STATES
Slain pair had second safe
Robbers who killed a Florida couple last month made off with a safe that contained little of value, but missed a second safe that held US$164,000 in cash, a lawyer for the victims’ family said on Tuesday. Byrd and Melanie Billings were shot to death on July 9. Surveillance cameras captured men dressed as ninjas entering the couple’s sprawling house, stealing a safe and leaving in less than four minutes. Family attorney Robert Beasley said in a statement that a second safe was not stolen and contained the money. A grand jury has indicted seven men in the case on two counts each of first-degree murder and one count each of home-invasion robbery.
■UNITED STATES
Boy saves girl from NY fire
Police say a six-year-old boy rescued a two-year-old girl from a fire at a Long Island house where three adults were later found dead. The two women and one man found in the burned Central Islip house had been shot, but it’s unclear if they died from gunshot wounds or the fire, which police said was arson. Homicide Detective Lieutenant Jack Fitzpatrick says firefighters were called to the blaze on Tuesday morning. The two-story house was engulfed in flames. The boy and girl were found outside the home.
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